Italian Terroir and Winemaking: How to make wine with a sense of place

Gian Pietro Carrozza

Italian Terroir and Winemaking

How to Make Wine with a Sense of Place

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Credits

I am immensely grateful to Francesca Bianchini, who corrected and revised the text.

Table of contents

Credits

INTRODUCTION

PART I - THE TERROIR

Ch. 1 - THE TERROIR

1.1 - Definition of terroir

1.2 - Influence of soil upon quality

1.3 - Influence of climate

1.4 - The geographic origin of wines

1.5 - The viticultural pedology

1.6 - The soil as a living system

Ch. 2 - GEOGRAPHY AND WINE

2.1 - Wine and geology

2.2 - Geology and the taste of wine: minerality

2.3 - Geography and wine: the place of origin

2.4 - The terroir: a geographical concept

2.5 - The geography of wine and climate factors

PART II - THE TECHNIQUE

Ch. 3 - THE VINE AND ITS ENVIRONMENT

3.1 - The grapevine

3.2 - Vineyard management

3.3 - Grapevine diseases

3.4 - Resistance to pathogens

3.5 - Resistance to abiotic stress

3.6 - Problems in contemporary viticulture

Ch- 4 - WINEMAKING

4.1 - Wine is the product of microbial activity

4.2 - Alcoholic fermentation

4.3 - Wine alterations

4.4 - Wine yeasts

4.5 - Malolactic bacteria

4.6 - Wine flavor

4.7 - The color of wine

4.8 - The taste of wine

4.9 - The influence of some winemaking techniques on the sensory quality of wine

4.10 - Off-odors

4.11 - Acetic acid

PART III - SUSTAINABILITY AND NATURALNESS

Ch. 5 - IN THE VINEYARD

5.1 - Sustainable viticulture

5.2 - Organic viticulture

5.3 - Biodynamic agriculture

5.4 - Biodynamic viticulture

Ch. 6 - IN THE CELLAR

6.1 - The spontaneous fermentation

6.2 - Wines without preservatives

CONCLUSION - THE SENSE OF PLACE

To Zoe, the newborn baby

INTRODUCTION

The sense of place in wine has to do with its diversity, that is linked to the environment where the grapes have been grown, and to the variability of the vintage. The techniques used in the cellar are also important, because they should protect or reveal that diversity.

The discussion about this issue should start with an obvious but useful premise: it does not exist a unique feature that gives wine this appeal; it is a matter of a complex process, that concerns all the stages of grapes growing and transformation. A series of conditions, inherent to this process, determines if the wine maintains some connection to the vineyard where it originates.

To explain these conditions better, it is useful to consider what is excluded from this context: wine of poor quality, produced by industrial companies, that market large volumes, do not grow their grapes, and do not take care of the place of origin, mixing different types.

Wine is a special drink, and it is precisely for this peculiarity that we talk about wine with a sense of place. The following list shows some aspects of this specialty:

- it comes from the fruit of the grapevine, a berry rich in nutrients and water, whose maturation, which is carried out over a period of 30-40 days, deeply determines the characteristics of the final product;

- the grapevine has undergone domestication for thousands of years, which has created thousands of varieties, adapted to different climates and soils and capable of interacting with the site, expressing their maximum potential;

- the juice of this berry is transformed by the alcoholic fermentation, often followed by malo-lactic fermentation, both processes resulting from the activity of wild or selected microorganisms;

- besides the varietal aromas, which are present in berries, volatile compounds, deriving from fermentation, maturation and aging, improve the sensory characteristics;

- adding synthetic or natural flavors is not permitted;

- the grape cultivar and the microorganisms involved in fermentation processes interact with the diversity of production environments and of vintages, causing unpredictable and different outcomes.

The result is a product that is not manufactured, but elaborated with knowledge and passion; human interventions should be strictly connected to nature and aimed at expressing the whole potential of the place and the variety.

A scientific approach pervades all this book; though science is good at describing and explaining the process of winemaking, it is not always able to indicate and define technical interventions. Sometimes, it is rather a matter of experience, skill, and perhaps a bit of art. The art of winemaking, as sometimes it is defined, involves some mystery, embedded in the everyday practice in the vineyard and in the cellar. This is because wine-making is very complex, and dependent on a series of unpredictable natural and environmental factors.

Growing wine grapes in Italy

Italy is a peninsula surrounded by the Mediterranean sea and running NW–SE for 700 miles (1,130km), along the Apennine Mountains, with two large island regions, Sardegna and Sicilia, off the south-west coast. Most of the country has a Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. Nevertheless, climate in Italy varies considerably from north to south, latitude being a key factor. In the northern area winters are cool and wet, and summers are very hot and particularly humid. In central Italy, in particular along the coasts, the climate is milder, with a smaller difference in temperature between summer and winter. Surrounded by warm seas, the southern part of Italy and the islands show winters that are never particularly harsh, with temperatures that seldom drop to freezing and summers can be quite hot.

Italy is divided into 20 regions, each of them produces wine; the most important and largest wine producing regions, such as Piemonte, Veneto, Toscana, Puglia and Sicilia, are divided into wine sub-regions, accordingly to slight variations of climate, due to geographic characteristics. As to wine grapes, in general the red ones prevail, but in north-eastern regions (Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige and Friuli), in Lazio and Sicilia white grapes are predominant.

Vineyards can be found from the sea level to around 4,000 ft, hosting a huge number of varieties, that can be divided into three groups: the international ones (of French origin, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc), the Italian best known and largely cultivated varieties (Sangiovese, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Montepulciano, Aglianico, Primitivo, Nero d'Avola), and the local and indigenous ones.

Being Italy stretched from North to South, and presenting an outstanding diversity of morphology – mountains, hills and plains - a multitude of environments, different for both climate and soil conditions, are included. This astonishing biodiversity has helped create over the centuries a large number of grapevine varieties. Every region of the country can claim its collection of local varieties, that have adapted to various environments and have been used to prepare a diversity of regional wine styles. In general local varieties are not well known, and some of them have been abandoned and are at risk of extinction.

Wine geographical indications in the European Union

In order to protect and qualify regional food, help farmers obtain an equitable price for their authentic products, and avoid unfair competition by products that do not have any link with places, the European Union regulation ensures the identification of products, wine included, originating in a certain region by means of two main geographical indications:

- protected designation of origin (PDO) - DOP in Italian;

- protected geographical indication (PGI) – IGP in Italian.

In Italy, this system of designations works parallel with the traditional system used for wine products (quality wines produced in a specified region, or QWPSR):

- controlled and guaranteed designation of origin (DOCG in Italian);

- controlled designation of origin (DOC in Italian);

- typical geographical indication (IGT in Italian).

DOCG is the highest classification for Italian wines, and is more stringent than DOC, being subject to official tasting procedures, in addition to chemical analyses.

Since 2008, the first two traditional designation, DOCG and DOC, have been substituted by the DOP designation, and the third one, IGT, has been substituted by IGP indication; for both DOP and IGP products, it is still permitted to use the traditional designations in the label.

In details, DOP (or DOC/DOCG in the traditional classification) is a name of a region or of a specific place in which the wine grapes are grown and the wine is prepared; varieties from which the wine is prepared must belong to Vitis vinifera; the characteristics of the wine are due to a particular geographical environment, with its agricultural and human factors.

IGP (or IGT in the traditional classification) is less strict than DOP; it applies to a wine that is produced in a geographical area and has a specific quality that can be attributed to this area; at least one phase of the production process must regard the area; at least 85 % of the grapes used for its production must come from this area.

DOP and IGP wines, that include the vast majority of quality wines in Italy, must be subjected to a system of monitoring, as regards the compliance with the product specification.

Wine specifications

Wine specifications are established for every DOP/IGP. They concern the rules that the winemaker must comply with; they contain the name of the product, a short description of its main analytical and organoleptic characteristics, the practices used in the cellar, the geographical area, the maximum yield per hectare, the minimum natural alcoholic strength, the wine grape variety or varieties to be used.

The compliance with the product specification, during all phases of wine-growing, is ensured by the competent authorities; in particular, controls can be made, including sensory and chemical analyses, during the production process and after bottling.

Distribution of DOP/IGP wines on the Italian territory

Italy ranks first in the world for wine production in volume (2015) with 48.8 million of hL; the second one is France (46.5) and the third one is Spain (36,6).

The most productive Italian region is Veneto (2014) with almost 8 million hL of wine, followed by Emilia-Romagna (6.3), Puglia (5.6) and Sicilia (5.0).

The grapes destined to DOP/IGP (DOP 60 % and IGP 40 %) are grown in an area of about 355,000 hectares (53.5 % of the overall area grown with wine grape).

At the moment, there are 403 DOP wines and 118 IGP wines in the Italian territory. The distribution of DOP/IGP wines in the Italian territory is very heterogeneous. The region with the highest number of DOP/IGP wines is Piemonte (58), followed by Toscana (56), Veneto (52), Lombardia (42), Puglia (38). About 41 % of Italian geographical designations is in northern Italy; Central Italy ranks second (25 %), followed by southern Italy (22 %) and the islands (12 %). Many northern regions have a very high percentage of DOP/IGP wines (over the total wine production); above 80 % in Val d'Aosta, Piemonte, Lombardia, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia; in central Italy, only Toscana and Marche have so high a percentage; in the southern regions only Puglia, Sicilia and Sardegna exceed 50 %.

Comparing wine production by region and the abundance of designations of origin, it is evident that quality wines play a basic role in Piemonte and Toscana, characterized by a high number of designations. Other regions where quality is highly regarded are Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trentino Alto Adige and Lombardia. In southern Italy, especially in Puglia and Sicilia, a lot of quality wines can be found, but they are not always classified as DOP/IGP, and still need to be acknowledged and protected.

As to the varieties involved in DOP/IGP wines, Glera (Prosecco wine), Sangiovese (Chianti) and Montepulciano (Montepulciano d'Abruzzo) are the most important.

The wine-growing system in Italy

Farms growing wine grapes in Italy are generally very small:

- less than 1 hectare: 53 %

- between 1 and 2: 19 %

- 2-5: 18 %

- 5-10: 7 %

- 10-20: 2 %.

The large number of small farms has caused reduced investments in the activities of grape growing and winemaking, including product marketing; it has also favored the development of a high number of cooperatives, that cover more than 40 % of the whole Italian grapevine area.

As to wineries, a similar distribution is present:

- less than 100 hL: 82 %

- between 100 and 500: 10 %

- 500-1000: 3 %

- 1000-10000: 4 %

About 22 % of the viticultural farms transform on site their own grapes (with occasionally purchased grapes). Owing to their little dimensions, these farms can easily differentiate production depending on soil and climate; therefore, they are thought to better defend the typicality of their territories, producing